Award Winner for Best Mixed-Use Development
UP POMPEY
Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 3TA
As major residential developments have moved away from soulless housing estates to vibrant mixed-use communities, this has become one of the most important categories of these awards. Gunwharf Quays, this year's runaway award winner, is not only an excellent example of brownfield regeneration (see pages 128-129) but also one of the most successful commercial developments in Britain.
In 1996 the Berkeley Group joined forces with the South African development company Lordland Property Holdings to develop the commercial elements of Gunwharf Quays in partnership. This £200-million development was modelled on Lordland's highly successful Victoria & Alfred (not Albert!) Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa, which attracts more than 20 million visitors a year - more than the Pyramids.
Construction started in 1997 and the Gunwharf Quays waterfront shopping and leisure complex opened in February 2001. It has a covered factory outlet shopping centre with more than 70 designer units, a permanent craft market, more than 20 waterside restaurants and bars, an 11-screen Warner Village multiplex, a 26-lane Bowlplex, a Grosvenor casino, a 130-bedroom Express by Holiday Inn hotel and 35,000 sq ft of offices. More hotels, shops and offices are planned. There is also an amphitheatre and leisure facilities, including a Jongleurs comedy club, a Tiger Tiger nightclub, plus a two-level underground car park for 1,450 cars.
Berkeley Group sold a 50-per-cent stake in the waterfront complex to Land Securities in December 2000. Lordland Property Holdings ceased to have an active r ô le in the day-to-day management in April 2002 but retained its interest in the development partnership until Land Securities bought the remaining 50 per cent in December 2003.
In its first year of operations, Gunwharf Quays attracted more than 5.3 million visitors, the largest crowds coming to see the finale of the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race, which attracted more than 180,000 visitors over the weekend. With its amazing £25-million Spinnaker Tower due for completion in 2005 with high-speed lifts to three viewing platforms, Gunwharf Quays is already the ultimate waterfront destination for the family.
Homebuilder: BERKELEY HOMES (HAMPSHIRE) LIMITED
Spinnaker House, Hampshire International Business Park, Chineham, Basingstoke RG24 8GG
Tel 01256 379900
Fax 01256 379909
Website: www.berkeleyhomes.co.uk
Contact: Seema Thakur, Marketing Co-ordinator.
Email: seema.thakur@berkeleygroup.co.uk
Architects: THE AMOS PARTNERSHIP LIMITED
Unit 2, The Canvas House, 25 Queen Elizabeth Street, London SE1 2NL
Tel 020 7403 0009
Fax 020 7403 2294
Contact: David Bowhill, Architect.
Email: davidbowhill@amosnet.co.uk